Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Hematocrit is a property of blood that represents the percent of the blood volume that is taken up by red blood cells. Hematocrit can be used as a diagnostic indicator, e.g., to determine that an individual is experiencing a disease or disorder. A detected hematocrit can be used to control a dose of a drug or to provide some other treatment, e.g., to control a dose of erythropoietin provided to a patient to counteract the effects of chemotherapy on the patient's hematocrit. Hematocrit may be detected by centrifuging a sample of blood using optical methods or other means to detect an amount of compacted red blood cells in the sample. Hematocrit may be detected via other methods.